This is getting really annoying. On my laptop, I can go in and turn on file and printer sharing, save settings, go back in and it will still be off. On my desktop, I can turn on network discovery, save changes, go back and it's still off.

I didn't disable the Windows Firewall service (although I did turn off the firewall in the Network properties). I use the "tweaked" configuration found here. SSDP in set to Manual and on, UPnP is set to Manual but it's off.

It suddenly works on my desktop but I still have the same problem on my laptop.

When I was setting up my parents network, I had to go into everest and check how the PC's naming was. For some reason, their two laptops where done with two different PC names and so I had to go and reset those in order for them to show up.

Yeah, but what I was saying is this.. Everest will show you the names of the computer.. if the computer isn't named right on all fields, meaning all fields have to be Worded right (caps lowercase letters/numbers), it leads to sharing not happening.. That's what I'm throwing at ya.

I disabled certain Windows features using the Windows 7 Manager Software to increase my computer's performance.
Enabling those features allowed me to change advaced sharing settings (they didn't reset afterwards) and also 'Sharing' appeared in my folders' properties.
I reenabled
'Disable the discovery of UPnP devices on your local network'
'I do not use Security Center'
'I am a single user with one internet connection'
'I do not need to shares Windows Media Player libraries to other networked pi...'
found in Windows 7 Manager -> Optimizer -> Service Manager -> Optimize.
Not sure which of the four did the trick though.